Talk:The Deadliest Fall

Copyvio?
This seems to be a direct copy from the reference linked on the bottom. Lyellin 08:29, 18 Dec 2004 (UTC)


 * It appears from the nick in the history that the author is copying his own material from an external web site he has written articles for in the past.


 * His smoking article appears to be in the same situation.


 * Since his user and user talk pages are both blank, perhaps a friendly e-mail, asking him to clarify that he is the same person from the external web site, would be in order?


 * &mdash; DV 09:05, 18 Dec 2004 (UTC)

History lesson, no news
As is currently written, this article is of little news value. It's mostly a historical account of the 1918 pandemic with an insulting and scaremongering 'you'd better read this for your safety!' intro on the Main Page. Far more than a few paragraphs of shallow facts regarding a vaccine and why this year is in any way unique need appear before this is of use. 119 13:18, 18 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Sometimes, newspaper carries this kind of thing to place latest news into a historical perspective. Whether Wikinews should do that, or Wikipedia is the place to do it, is a good question.

I also realised that the text is very similar to, if not simply the same with, this page http://www.ideaexplore.net/news/041116.html. It is cited as a source here, but unless the author is the same person, I am afraid that there is a copyright problem. I left a note to the contributor's talk page. Tomos 21:54, 18 Dec 2004 (UTC)

I agree. Sometimes this type of story is done to hone the point of a current problem. Having said that, this article seems, at the best, a bit late considering the bruhaha over vaccines has ended months ago. This makes me question WHY the article is written now. Perhaps this is too much too late? --tcv 03:49, 19 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Hi, I wrote the article. Thank you for your comments. Yes, I copied the articles from my own website, and I wrote the original articles. I agree that this article is mostly historical, with only the last few paragraphs being news, thus I think moving it to the Reports section was appropriate. I'm sorry my intro was insulting. I've changed it to hopefully be more straightforward. I can also change the title to something less evocative, like "History of a flu pandemic," if you feel that would be more appropriate. The bruhaha over vaccines was about a US shortage of vaccines for ordinary flu strains, while this article was about something different--the risk of the current Asian bird flu jumping to humans in a human-to-human transmissible form to create another pandemic, with the 1918 pandemic used to illustrate what a flu pandemic is like. Perhaps I should rewrite the article to emphasize that and avoid confusion. To make the article more current I could add more news when I have time, such as the most recent bird flu cases and recent comments by health officials on the risk of a pandemic in the near future. Since this is now a report, I may also add information from another article I've written which covers some background on influenza, unless you feel that this is already too long or too historical. Thanks --Larry


 * I think that an article is great, but it's not wikinews material (too late to be news). I think that most of it (basically all of it) should be copied to Spanish flu. That article is currently in a very bad form and is basically a poorly structured collection of random facts. I think your article would be MUCH better (and then facts from existing Wikipedia article can be used to expand it).


 * Afterwards here on wikinews it would make sense to remove most of the background material from the article, possibly rename it and add some references to current situation, for example, conditions of mergency medical services, their ability to respond to a pandemic, what happened during the last pandemic, opinions of the experts on chances of a large pandemic this year and may be some relevant general "medical advice". Paranoid 18:29, 26 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Evidence of Danger
The article doesn't explain the likelihood that the new virus will become contagious among humans. Also, how easily could it be quarentined? Without evidence that the new virus poses a danger, this article seems to be fear-mongering about viruses. The claim that the virus is likely to become dangerous, needs more evidence.
 * "The virus has killed two-thirds of people reported to be infected." I don't know about you, but that is quite scary. And what do you mean "how easily could it be quarentined" considering it doesn't even have a method for transfering from human to human. I suppose the answer is "pretty damn easy" currently. And anyways, why are you asking questions that could be looked up yourself. --Eean 05:12, 27 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Retrospective article is notable
I disagree with those who have been questioning the notability of this article. See Bird flu may infect 20 percent of world's population, kill millions for one recent article and the Wikipedia entry on pandemic for more information. In particular, I quote from that article:

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In November 2004 the director for the western region of the World Health Organization said that an influenza pandemic was inevitable and called for urgent plans to combat the virus. (Reuters)

In May 2005, scientists urgently call nations to prepare for a global flu pandemic that could strike as many as 20% of the world's population. 

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Clearly, this is an issue which some very bright people feel is a pressing one at this moment in history. Of course, it could become sensationalist easily, but I think that having this story in WikiNews' log of stories is good for any future occurrence of pandemic flu, be it avian influenza or an actual human pandemic outbreak - we can cite back to this article for a good resource. - McCart42 03:46, 28 May 2005 (UTC)

Some personal notes regarding the Spanish flu
My paternal Italian grandmother died from this disease in 1918 in an Italian village located in the Abruzzi.

At the age of six or seven, my mother who was born in 1912, remembers seeing stacked coffins lining the street outside a mortuary in the small rural town of Los Banos, CA